National Center for Science & Civic Engagement (NCSCE)

Topic

Educazione responsabilità (engagement)
/ Sitografia

Tipologia ente:

Progetto

Contesto geografico:

Extra EU

Lingua:

inglese

Abstract

NCSCE is a national organization that supports a community of teachers and learners. Through grant funding, it helps educators in and outside the classroom make connections between the content they teach and real world issues of civic importance. By putting content into context, what is inaccessible becomes accessible, what is uninteresting becomes interesting, and what is not meaningful becomes meaningful. It empowers learners by showing them that their knowledge matters, and what they learn today can help solve some of the biggest problems of tomorrow. Since 2001 more than 6,000 educators, administrators, students, and community leaders from over 5,000 two-and four-years colleges, universities, agencies, informal education venues, and community-based organisations have taken part in SENCER and NCSCE activities and contributed their knowledge and work to the project. NCSCE was founded in 2004, and since 2015 has been hosted by the Department of Technology and society at Stony Brook University. SENCER is the signature program of NCSCE. The origin of the SENCER approach was a course developed by Monica Devanas at Rutgers University that taught basic biology through a focus on HIV disease. Using a pressing and timely problem of immediate interest to students, such as the HIV epidemic, helped students understand complex biological concepts and increased their learning. It currently supports four initiatives, in addition to SENCER, that advance education and civic engagement: SENCER-ISE; Engaging Mathematics; SCEWestNet; GLISTEN. The mission of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) is to inspire, support, and disseminate campus-based science education reform strategies that strengthen learning and build civic accountability among students in colleges and universities. The Center will serve as a national resource for the improvement of undergraduate science education and will provide a platform enabling faculty and administrators to broaden the impact of their innovations and reforms beyond their campuses. NCSCE areas of focus are personal and public health; democracy; environment; globalisation; educational practice; assessment; humanities.